So I have never done this but from my school I recently got a dell precision T7910 for free as they were going to toss it out and I thought I could use it as a back up server for my projects and files as I go through school or use it as a media server to kinda get rid of all my subscriptions. I do know I want to run a linux server distro on there but as I have stated I’ve never done anything like this as im still in school and learning but heres is what I do know about this dell.
It has 2 Intel Xeon E5-2690V4 SR2N2 2.60GHz 14-Cores each
only 8gb of ddr4 ecc ram for each processor,
no graphics card
no HDDs or SSDs ( I do have one 1TB HDD 3.5", and a 500GB SSD 2.5" lying around somewhere )
It does power on and run but no OS installed
I am a disabled Vet who is on a tight income so I will try to buy what I can when I can but a general list of items i will need eventually would be appreciated and any recommendations would be gladly welcomed! Thank you to any and all who read and respond!
@Itachixkurosaki I’d recommend after you choose a hard drive you install Debian, It is the most stable OS I have found. If you install XFCE for a desktop it should run fine on the laptop.
That decision depends on the final use/utility of the equipment will perform for you.
Perhaps de best option is a good configuration system, for example if you’re compiling get optimal config, on OS perhaps adjust vfs_cache_pressure, get a swap space compressed on memory/disk storage and adjust swapiness, and dirty_bytes, on kernel parameters for example. Best options for hardware if needed is memory, and storage disk. For compute/traininginference you can select a graphics card adjusted for your needs. Is specially useful for HPC setup about mitigations (=off), isolation of cores(isolcpus), reduce timer ticks on cores(nohz_full), RCU redirected to management cores instead isolated cores (rcu_nocbs, irqaffinity), or disable power management latencies ( processor.max_cstate=1, intel_idle.max_cstate=0, idle=poll), and disable watchdog for eliminate jitter on RealTime apps(nmi_watchdog=0). at this point you must ensure that your core cooling system is optimal so that the clock cycle range does not drop, and there is no thermal stress. Regards.
thank you for the input will definetly look into these im still waiting on some stuff to come in but did get gifted a few stuff from a few of my professors as they are in the process of upgrading a lot of stuff in the labs at the different campus’s which I now have the following
Now each processor has 64 GB of ram
4 4TB SAS drives
4 250gb SSDs
a GTX 1660 graphics card
basically overall outcome of this rig will be somewhere for me to practice topics/projects I cover while im finishing my CIS degree, as well use jellyfin for my media, and a back up raid for most of my private files and school projects
But I think after a bunch of research and still being new to all this I think i will try Ubuntu server along with CasaOS would be in the realm I’m comfortable doing.